1. rightness (n) a: accordance with conscience or morality b: appropriate conduct; doing the right thing c: conformity to fact or truth 2. truth (n) a: the state of being the case b: the body of real things, events, and facts

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

WAR NEWS ROUNDUP

"Kurds are fire, if approached correctly they get warm if approached wrongly they burn."~ Leyla Zana.

Pop quiz, boys and girls: How do you spell "gewad"?

Istanbul, Turkey (KurdishMedia.com) 26 February 2008: Jalal Talabani, the head of PUK, stated that the PKK is a terrorist organsiation and they must evacuate their bases in Mount Qandil. Talabani was interviewed by the Turkish KANAL D at 19:00 local time on Tuesday.

[ . . . ]

Talabani, a Kurd, praised the Turkish parliament and government. He stated that he believes that there is a democratic elected parliament in Turkey. Talabani stated that Erdogan and Gül are elected politicians and they should be respected by the Kurds. He stated there are elected Kurds in the [ruling Islamic party] AKP

Talabani further declared that the PKK is a terrorist organization, as it is accepted by the international community. The PKK must be disarmed, Talabani added.

Talabani stated that he would visit Turkey in the near future because it was very important for him.

His interview angered northern Kurds. A Kurdish activist, Cengiz Apaydin, in Istanbul told KurdishMedia.com after the interview, “Talabani is a good Kurd for Turks. I am sure he has no links to the Kurdish people. A Kurd who praised by Turks is a bad Kurd.”

If you answered: M-A-M C-E-L-A-L, then you are 100% correct! Give yourselves gold stars and move to the head of the class!

It sounds like someone else wants to be just like Mam Celal when he grows up:

KurdishMedia.com: In a recent press meeting in the city of Erbil (Hewler) in Iraqi Kurdistan, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) downplayed the recent attacks by the Turkish military in the Kurdistan federal region. The Kurdish PM, Mr. Nechirvan Barzani, answered questions from the press and commented on the recent invasion by the Turkish military in the northern most part of the Kurdistan federal region. Barzani made surprising comments that civilians had not been affected by the attacks when several different media reports indicate otherwise.

[ . . . ]

Barzani's comments came across very lightly as several news media reports and even footage of the region has clearly shown civilian areas to have been damaged by Turkish air assaults.

[ . . . ]

The Kurdish public remains curious about the intentions of the downplaying of such events. In the meantime, Turkish strikes on both rebel targets and the civilian population continue in the region.

Okay, maybe I'm being a little hard on Nêçîrvan; he wouldn't have anything to say if he weren't told to say it by Mesûd. But what does it matter since only 83 villages have been targeted since last Thursday. It's not like it was their personal bank accounts the Ankara regime was targeting.

If you want more on the lies of the regime that the Southern Kurdish leadership worships, take a look at something the hevals at KurdishInfo have translated for you. Just so you know, "asparagus news" means "bullshit news".

KurdishInfo also reports that some of the TSK's body count is a result of Turkish soldiers freezing to death and there's something about a TSK order of body bags. There's another mention of frozen Turkish soldiers at IraqUpdates along with a description of a recent battle:

Fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waged a four-pronged attack on Turkish forces in the area of al-Zab, near the Iraqi-Turkish borders, a PKK official said on Tuesday.

"The Turkish side lost 21 soldiers and still the PKK fighters keep the bodies of five of them. Our fighters also seized their M-16 weapons," Ahmed Deniz, the PKK official in charge of foreign affairs, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

"The PKK has lost only one fighter, though," Deniz said.

Uh-oh, Mr. Erdoğan, it looks like PKK has some American-made weapons.

He said the PKK also thwarted a landing by Turkish paratroopers in the area of Jamjou, adding "our fighters withstood the landing and forced the Turks to withdraw.

"The fighting is still flaring up in the areas of Bazia and al-Zab but it ended in Irsh, where the Turkish troops pulled out," he said.

Roz Wallat, a commander of the PKK, said "the Turkish troops' position is very hard due to the ferocious resistance showed by our fighters."

Wallat, however, expected military escalations on the Turkish side, noting "they (the Turks) are preparing for fresh operations."

The PKK had admitted on Tuesday the killing of four of its fighters in clashes with Turkish forces in northern Iraqi, affirming that the Turkish offensive was repulsed and troops denied further advances.

"Fighting is still going on for the sixth day running in several areas, including the Avashin, al-Zab and Bazia, where we managed to repulse the Turkish attack and deny Turkish forces more advances," Wallat told VOI.

"The number of Turkish fatalities reached 80 while some others froze to death due to snowfall in the area," Wallat said.

The WaPo tells us that "[m]any Pentagon and State Department officials are upset with the Kurds for failing to take strong measures against the PKK despite repeated promises to crack down on the group." Oh, too funny! I mean, after all, it's Pentagon and State Department officials who've been taking bribes from the Turks all these years and selling American nuclear technology to the Turks. The Turks, in turn, sold the technology to Pakistan and at least attempted to sell it to Libya, according to Sibel Edmonds. Who knows who else they sold to? North Korea?

Hevallo has you covered for lots of ongoing news, like Leyla Zana speaking in Amed, Aliza Marcus speaking in the IHT, and a video report from Al-Jazeera. Make sure and look at the old MedTV footage he dug up and partnered with an article on the recent shootdown of a Cobra by HPG in the Zap region. Some may remember the helicopter shot down in 1997 was carrying some paşas--meaning that PKK got a lot of bang for its buck.

RojTV has footage of the Cobra shootdown, video follows. Thanks to a reader who left the link in comments:

One more video, also from a reader who likes to share--Thank you, anonymous--and this one's a bit more personal:

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm not a big fan of Talabani's style however I watched his interview on Kanal D and he didn't exactly say outright that the PKK was a terrorist organization. It was his classic doublespeak about him classifying all groups that use violence as terrorist groups...and in the same interview he asked the Turkish state not to use violence as well. In fact, Birand said something to the effect that "we [turkey] see the PKK as a terrorist group and from what I understand the matter is different for you".

My turkish is a bit dusty -- I'd be interested to see if in fact he stated the PKK was terrorist.

I am the anonymous reader who left both links (France 24 and the Cobra shootdown) in this blog. I read your blog here in Europe on a daily basis. Your sight is very informative and i really feel bad that the Kurds do not have a homeland to call their own. You have plenty sympathizers here in Europe. We understand that Turkey is a strategic ally of the US but the human rights violations of Kurds are unacceptable. This hypocrisy of EU members towing the Washington line on Turkey infuriates me. I have met many Kurds and they are wonderful people. I wish you and the Kurds all the best in this life. Keep the good fight going.

Clearly the pashas learn nothing from their wars - this recalls WW1, when huge numbers of their soldiers froze to death in the mountains while fleeing from the vengeance of the Imperial Russian Army with the blood of Armenian civilians on their hands.

Let the lesson be repeated. May Nemesis smile on the righteous struggle of the Kurdish fighters.

Nistiman - today, a representative from Turkey (Murat Ozcelik) visited Baghdad and it was reiterated by Hosyar Zebari that Iraq recognizes PKK as a "terrorist" organization (source: Awene News, http://www.awene.com/). Regardless of how they phrase it, Talabani and Zebari's message is quite clear so I wouldn't discredit Kurdmedia so quickly.

On another note... Mizgin - I would definitely say you should be hard on Nechirvan. The fact is that elements within the party have been straying from one another for quite some time, and Nechirvan most likely made those statements all on his own disregarding whether or not Massoud Barzani were to approve it.

Eumenides, your comments are exactly the same as some made to me by someone else as I was writing this post.

Anonymous, thanks for both links and good wishes, and I don't see the good fight going under any time soon.

About Necirvan, I was being a bit facetious, Anonymous.

As for making the news, don't you think it's odd that news of importance only makes its way into international media and not into US media? Sibel Edmonds' case is the most striking example of this, but it's the same with the current situation. Why is more not reported in the media?

Hevallo has been griping about the same thing, too, and I don't blame him.

Anonymous and Nistiman, I've seen the remarks of Hoshyar, too, and in US media--of course the "terrorist" remarks would be noted there, without any context as to why there is a PKK. No mention of context on the part of Southern Kurdish politicians is despicable.